[1] Built atop Melton Hill the large red-brick structure is a well-known landmark of the Townsville central business district.

[1] The first Anglican church was established on Melton Hill, purchased with the aid of parishioners at a sale of crown lands and work began on the on 24 May 1871.

Stanton did not immediately go to Townsville but spent several months in England, trying to raise funds and attract clergy for the new diocese.

The foundation stone was laid on the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 27 June 1887, and the building was erected by Townsville contractors MacMahon & Cliffe.

Subsequent financial constraints forced changes to the design, and the cathedral was constructed in brick, with concrete facings, a temporary roof and no towers.

The apse, chancel, transepts and part of the nave and flanking arcades were built with a temporary roof constructed overhead.

[1] On 9 March 1903 Cyclone Leonta struck Townsville, destroying the 1871 St James Church and the temporary roof of the cathedral.

The main western facade together with the statue of St James, part of the roof and a section of the eastern wall were severely damaged by Cyclone Althea in 1972, and restored in the same year.

[1] St James Anglican Cathedral, constructed in English Bond red brick with dressed sandstone trim, is located on a terraced site on Melton Hill between the Townsville central business district and Cleveland Bay.

The north transept has a large organ loft inserted and the roof features exposed trusses with a diagonally boarded ceiling.

The west entry consists of a large recessed pointed arch with undistinguished mosaic artwork to both the interior and exterior.

It is not heritage-listed[1] A single-storeyed timber Synod Hall, built in 1888 on a separate site, is located to the east of the building beyond a large bitumen carpark.

St James Cathedral, erected in two stages 1887–1892 and 1959–1960, is important in demonstrating the pattern of establishment and growth of the Anglican Church in North Queensland in the late 19th century.

It has had a strong and special association as a centre of Anglican worship and community life in Townsville for over a century, and as part of an historic church grouping which includes Synod Hall (1888).